Stone
Heart
By Charlie Fletcher.
Hodder Childrens Books £5.99
ISBN-10: 0340911638
ISBN-13: 978-0340911631  Alana Hebenton review
Twelve year old outsider George is on what he thinks is just another
boring school trip to the Natural History Museum, when his world
gets flipped upside down and his life is transformed forever.

After being punished
for yet another thing he didnt do, George breaks the head off
a dragon museum monument by punching it in a frustrated rage. Next thing
George knows he is being chased by a pterodactyl carving and he has
entered another realm where statues come to life.

Escaping the pterodactyl
George then meets a Spit, a living statue of a person they
memorise, known as the Gunner. The Gunner reveals
to George that he is now in Un-London another world within
London, where there is currently a war between the Spits
and the Taints, evil soulless statues of gargoyles and dragons.

George is then introduced to the Glint, a person, who can
see the Spits and Taints of Un-London
and read the history of any stone they touch, in the form of a twelve
year old homeless orphan girl Eddie. With Eddie and the Gunners
help, George starts his twenty four hour frenzied adventure of Un-London.
Amongst the madness George finds answers from talking Sphinxes, whilst
trying to escape death from flying gargoyles and dragons.

Charlie Fletcher, like JK Rowling, manages to create a captivating land
of fantasy within the everyday world of grimy London, using realistic
explanations that keep the reader engaged. Charlie Fletcher also manages
not to patronise his audience by presenting relatable endearing characters
that have gritty back stories. His use of authentic dialogue also adds
to believable feel of the characters. These features, along with the
books movie like style, by way of its dramatic fight scenes and
suspense filled chases, allow the reader to easily imagine the book
on the big screen packed with special effects.

Charlie Fletcher also writes a book that can be enjoyed not only by
children, who will love the books fantasy world of dragons and
gargoyles, but by teens and older audiences, who will relate to the
characters other struggles. This is because although Charlie Fletchers
Stone Heart is great simply on the surface as an intricate action
filled novel, it also deals with the much deeper and darker issues of
abandonment and isolation that the characters are experiencing in their
real lives. Both problems that older readers will be able
to share with the characters. This can be seen from the way in which
fighting against dragons and gargoyles is not all that twelve year old
George and Eddie have in common, as both feel alone in the hard city
of London. George as he is a bullied outsider with a non-attentive mother
and Eddie as she is a homeless orphan living on the streets, after running
away from numerous care homes. This leads to close bond being formed
between the two characters.